First Bank’s Firstmonie, MMIT Partners on BlackBerry Social Commerce in Nigeria

Firstmonie, the mobile money service of First Bank of Nigeria Limited
and MMIT (Mobile Media Info Tech) are partnering with BlackBerry in
Nigeria to enable social commerce in BBM™, the popular private social
network.
This collaboration will enable Nigerians access and pay for digital
content available on BBM shop using their Firstmonie mobile wallet, from
FirstBank. BBM users in Nigeria will be able to personalize and
enhance their chat experiences. This includes being able to easily
browse and download stickers that will bring some more fun to BBM chats.
Most of the content has been localized allowing users to express
themselves in local lingo. Now BBM users can say “How you dey?” and much
more in a fun “Naija way” to brighten up their chat.
According to the Head, Cards and Physical Channels for FirstBank, Mr.
Chuma Ezirim, this new service is another step towards leveraging
evolving technologies to bring fast and convenient financial services
closer to the unbanked and under banked Nigerians, a move that clearly
aligns with the CBN Financial inclusion initiative. “By enabling people
to use their mobile phones as a tool for carrying out financial
transactions and accessing digital content, FirstBank is delivering
long-term benefits for both our customers and the Nigerian economy as we
continue to put our customers first,” he further explained.
“Today, we are breaking new grounds by extending our mobile payments
capabilities into BBM, which is the social network where Nigerians spend
most of their time.” says Jide Akindele, Founder of MMIT. “This is just
the start. Our merchants, who are increasingly advertising on BBM to
reach their customers, will also be able to leverage our collaboration
with BlackBerry to convert these advertisements into e-commerce sales”.
MMIT is an established and key stakeholder in Africa’s mobile money
ecosystem. MMIT’s mobile processing platform is connected to some of the
largest mobile wallet providers in Sub-Saharan Africa. International
merchants leverage MMIT’s connections to offer their customers secure
and convenient services.